"Bad" Sega sales

[Noku]

I don't get this.

 

http://www.truegameheadz.com/blogheadz/no-wii-can%E2%80%99t-part-deux-sega%E2%80%99s-madworld-doesn%E2%80%99t-sell-wtf/

 

Aside from claiming that de Blob didn't sell, it goes on to say that HotD: Overkill and Madworld aren't selling.

 

Edit: Heh. Could've sworn I saw a statement in there that compared this to Zack & Wiki and de Blob.

 

Bullcrap.

 

Madworld came in 36th (6th in Wii) in Europe in a chart composed a day after its release, and outsold HotD already in the US (60.000 to 50.000).

 

Also:

Sega’s reverse course, and decides to take it ultra, “Adult Mature†with “House of the Dead: Overkill,†“MadWorld,†and “The Conduit†and this is what it gets them? I hope they’ve learned their lesson and decide to stop supporting Nintendo with “Exclusives.†They were enemies for a reason.

 

WTF?

Edited March 23, 2009 by Noku

[S.C.G]

That's pretty sad assuming it's not BS as Sega exclusives for the Wii (both produced and published titles) have on the whole been decent.

[ShadowV7]

I read this earlier and the writer seems like an idiot. He said MadWorld has been out for weeks and only sold 60k in that time in America, when infact, it was 3 days. As for the UK we should wait for next weeks charts and see how it does. Games should really be counted from Fridays to Thursday nights. Make things so much easier. Then we still have the rest of Europe to acount for sales instead of just the UK.

 

MadWorld will be over a mil soon enough I think. People are bitching far too early into MadWorlds release. Let it actually be on sale for a while then complain, not when it's just been released.

[darkjak]

How about some marketing?

Noone here in Sweden knows what HotD and MW is. Many guys at the university were stumped when they saw MW on the Wii, as it pretty much came out of nowhere here. My Sims, CoD, Mario Galaxy, Smash Bros, Wii Fit, Metroid, all have been advertised here, and all have sold well.

The Core audience isn't just the Core audience, it also includes the Mainstream, the kids whom are "too cool" for game mags.

 

I however don't think that these games will be flops. HotD is a lightgun game for petes sake, it doesen't have any physics or anything.

[Dante]

UK Charts

 

THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2 & 3 RETURN

Weekly Ranking

 

Week 1= 15th

Week 2= 14th

Week 3= 22nd

Week 4= 30th

Week 5= not ranked

 

LTD sales 100k-200k as of last award

 

 

THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD OVERKILL

Weekly Ranking

 

Week 1= 10th (#3 Wii Chart)

Week 2= 9th (#3 Wii Chart)

Week 3= 16th (#3 Wii Chart)

Week 4= 24th (#5 Wii Chart)

Week 5= 20th (#4 Wii Chart)

 

THQ's unique paint-splattering Wii game de Blob has sold over 700K units worldwide, CEO Brian Farrell said on Tuesday during the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco.

 

Even in a wretched retail environment, the game has been able to hold its original $49.99 price point after about five months of availability. “We can make money on games like that," Farrell said.

 

"The competition on the Wii right now is from Nintendo. That's what we've got to attack," he added. "The people who buy Nintendo games, [we want to] get them to buy things like de Blob."

 

As for the upcoming release of the Nintendo DSi handheld, Farrell said THQ would be migrating its "biggest brands" to the platform, adding that there will be new gameplay opportunities thanks to the DSi's new features.

[Grazza]

I'm not going to write off Mad World being a success, because I don't think it's been out long enough, but I still say not everyone likes violence.

 

The mainstream gamer may very well like violence, but no amount of it will tear them away from their HD consoles.

 

I can't believe people are still equating "adult" and "mature" with violent and gory. Zelda and Metroid aren't gratuitously violent, are they? Maybe if someone made something a bit more like those, or Shadow of the Colossus, the sensible, "keen" gamer would be a bit more interested.

[Pestneb]

Just a slight side track, are there games out there that allow violence but encourage passive approaches that avoid violence where possible?

ie getting the message across that "kill kill kill" mindless destroy break crush tactics aren't always the best way forward? The closest I can think of are stealth titles, but these tend to be more avoidance of self harm than avoidance of harming others...

[James McGeachie]

The charttrack sales are a bit discouraging. 6th place on the Wii chart, its first day sales (almost always the best for any hardcore non-casual game) were worse than just a random week for Mario & Sonic at the Olympics. Also sold a good deal worse than Black Knight, which has been out a few weeks now.

 

I'm buying when I get paid but argh. If there's anyone around here this game appeals to that isn't buying it, same for the Conduit when it's out, then no one is gonna have any genuine right to complain when hardcore third party support completely and utterly dries up.

[Mokong]

WTF? How are people complaining about sales for MadWorld... it's not even been out for a full week yet??? all the other games would be based on full week sales while Madworld would have been what, 3 days? Such quick jumps to screams of "fail" make it seem like people don't want it to do well

[Retro_Link]

I guess alot of people may be comparing it to sales of Resi 5, which is unfair as it's a highly established franchise.

[Shino]

If MadWorld reaches 500k worldwide, that's pretty good!

[Aimless]

I don't get this.

 

http://www.truegameheadz

That's as far as I got before immediately discounting anything they had to say. Harsh, perhaps, but such filtering has yet to fail me.

[Retro_Link]

and how come HotD hasn't been released in Japan?

[flameboy]

People are idiots...FACT.

 

As others have said, Madworld has been out for such a short amount of time how can it possibly be labelled a success or a flop yet?

[Ren of Heavens]

With a 50 million install base MadWorld and The Conduit should do at least 1 million each. Otherwise it will be very hard convincing other third parties to make such type of games for the system.

[Emasher]

That's as far as I got before immediately discounting anything they had to say. Harsh, perhaps, but such filtering has yet to fail me.

 

I was thinking the exact same thing. Most likely MadWorld sales will pick up as word gets out about it.

[Grazza]

Just a slight side track, are there games out there that allow violence but encourage passive approaches that avoid violence where possible?

ie getting the message across that "kill kill kill" mindless destroy break crush tactics aren't always the best way forward? The closest I can think of are stealth titles, but these tend to be more avoidance of self harm than avoidance of harming others...

 

Well, somewhat. Metal Gear Solid and ICO make you question your willingness to use violence, and the former (although gratuitous at times) might actually make you replay it more stealthily to avoid harming anyone at all (apart from the bosses). Shadow of the Colossus also makes you question the wisdom of your actions (though this does not affect the gameplay).

 

I should say I don't really have a problem with violence, but if it's gratuitous, I find it a turn-off. Not to be patronising, but for the sake of clarity, I define that as: a) unnecessary, b) overly graphic, c) features the "pleasure" of violence for its own sake or d) is a selling-point of the game. I think it's fair to apply most of those to HotD: Overkill and MadWorld.

 

I don't criticise anyone who just wants to play a good game, but these two Sega titles could appear a bit adolescent to some.

[Shino]

With a 50 million install base MadWorld and The Conduit should do at least 1 million each. Otherwise it will be very hard convincing other third parties to make such type of games for the system.

 

100M PS2 didn't sell 300k Okamis and MadWorld is by far more niche than Okami. I would agree somewhat with The Conduit, but there's many variables to account for.

[Goron_3]

Thing is though, Madworld is a core video game, so its first few days worth of sales are usually going to be when most of the copies of it are brought.

[Shino]

Thing is though, Madworld is a core video game, so its first few days worth of sales are usually going to be when most of the copies of it are brought.

 

Maybe, I guess everyone has to wait and see.

 

Also, are the 60k units stuff reliable?

[Pete]

Seems there talking trash.

[Mokong]

Thing is though, Madworld is a core video game, so its first few days worth of sales are usually going to be when most of the copies of it are brought.

 

But it's a completely new IP with a totally unique visual style.

If it was an already accomplished franchise then yes people would expect it to sell very well on day one.

But core or not, the majority of people are likely gonna wait for awhile, maybe wait for reviews or the chance to playtest it at a friends house.

[jammy2211]

HOTD Overkill is stuttering at retail. Like the bundle of HOTD 2 and 3 it's struggling at a high price point, 2&3 found their way to a million units but most of them sales were at a heavily reduced retail price - not very useful for SEGA. Overkill's strong retail presense shows SEGA put some money behind marketing but it's not really paying off.

 

Mad World it's too early to say, but first week / few day sales in various regions are pretty passable. I never expect a game of that style to sell anyway, I doubt it'll hold strong sales in the preceeding weeks.

 

Nothing to inspire third parties to make more core games, but I don't think these were the best attempts at doing it. Conduit should sell really well, albeit I can see it bombing hard outside the US.

[Zechs Merquise]

Thing is though, Madworld is a core video game, so its first few days worth of sales are usually going to be when most of the copies of it are brought.

 

Well, that's where you're wrong. If you look at the way Wii games sell they are often slow burners. Look at COD:WAW, everyone wrote off the Wii version when it was released due to poor early sales, it's now sold 980,000 copies - in a month it'll be a million seller. The same for Shaun White's Snowboarding which has already passed the million mark.

 

HotD Overkill has sold over160,000 copies worldwide already. And Madworld has been out less than a week. The guy writing the article is a bit of a twat to be honest and writes like a child trying to win an argument in the playground.

 

Come back in a few months, lets see then.

[david.dakota]

a) unnecessary, b) overly graphic, c) features the "pleasure" of violence for its own sake or d) is a selling-point of the game.

 

I'm not entirely sure i agree with you. I don't think games- or any media- should refrain from using violence if its integral to the experience. The Silence of the Lambs demands its violence due to its subject matter- it'd be a very different film without it. I think the same can be applied to games- such as MadWorld and Overkill.

 

I don't criticise anyone who just wants to play a good game, but these two Sega titles could appear a bit adolescent to some.

 

I'm again not sure the simple inclusion of violence is enough to warrant people dismissing games as adolescent. I know people with DS who'd not touch anything but Brain Training since they believe games in general are adolescent.

 

I'm not sure, but I'm starting to believe the older gamer is demanding- and whats being left out of the Wii lineup (including The Conduit as far as i can tell) is a deeper, well written narrative. A more cinematic experience, perhaps. But thats an argument for a different thread, i'm sure.